February 25, 2009

The Non Sequiturs Return: “Play Ball!” Edition

If you’ve been a long-time Daily Fungo reader, you know that I’ve posted a semi-regular series called The Non Sequiturs. More recently I’ve posted similar items under the Wednesday Walewanders banner (or Friday Fungoes, Three for Thursday, etc.). You may ask: What’s the difference? Truth is, there isn’t any. Just thought I’d come clean on [...]

November 26, 2008

Wednesday Walewanders

For the first time in three months (no joke), it’s raining here. We’ll stay warm and dry as we rollout another set of Walewanders:

Remember when the Tigers announced that one of the coaches hadn’t decided to return for 2009? Whatever happened with that?

Almost a year ago, the Tigers acquired Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera [...]

October 10, 2008

Placido Polanco, Birthday Boy

He’s 33 today.

September 24, 2008

Sweet Mercy

As the Tigers’ losses mount here at the end of the string, I’m startled at the amount of energy I spend fretting about this lost season.
Swept by the Royals? Again!?
Those words are enough to send me into a frothy rage.
On Wednesday night it was the dreadful Nate Robertson’s turn to lie down for the [...]

August 24, 2008

Game 130: Robertson Brilliant in Relief!

The Score: Royals 7 – Tigers 3
The Gist: The Tigers got off to a fast start but the Royals decided not to lose their eighth straight on Sunday and scored seven unanswered runs off Tigers starter Kenny Rogers. Recently banished Nate Robertson pitched two-thirds of scoreless, hitless relief (huzzah!). Placido Polanco had three hits and [...]

August 15, 2008

Back in Time: 2008 is 2005

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Here we are, approaching the third weekend of August, and the Tigers are mired in third place, nine-and-a-half games out of first place. And, as I’m always reminding myself, only five games out of last place. This was supposed to be like 1984, 1968 or even 1945. It [...]

July 29, 2008

Game 106: Tired Tigers Wake Up

The Score: Tigers 8 – Indians 5
The Gist: Armando Galarraga is to the Indians as Paul Byrd is to the Tigers. Well, not quite, but Galarraga beat the Tribe for the third time this year, Tigers hitters were spared batting practice and turned it on, you know, during a game. But back to Galarraga: three [...]

July 23, 2008

Game 101: Sweaty Sweep

The Score: Tigers 7 – Royals 1
The Gist: Armando Galarraga was nearly perfect — and for six innings he was. In his seven innings pitched he fanned seven and didn’t allow a baserunner until yielding three singles and a walk in the seventh, but he was downright dominant in raising his record to 8-4. Placido [...]

July 20, 2008

Game 97: Luke Scott Fatigue

The Score: Orioles 11 – Tigers 10
The Gist: The Tigers were up 6-0. Again they couldn’t hold pile on until it was too late. Not sure if tacking on three runs counts as “piling on”, though. Nate Robertson was awful — 2.1 IP, 8 hits, 7 ER (but no walks) — and Placido Polanco had [...]

July 18, 2008

Game 96: Six Straight Curveballs

The Score: Orioles 7 – Tigers 4
The Gist: Armando Galarraga gave up two, two-strike home runs and Bobby Seay refused to throw anything but a breaking ball to Luke Scott and the Tigers fell back to the .500 mark. The Tigers weren’t suffering from a lack of baserunners. In fact, they had bases loaded with [...]